Zarkon

Wow great job! This build looks like a lot of fun! Jeff

Hey all, I have finished the first belt of hull planking. I'll leave some pics and will start re-reading the instructions about the second belt! I'm 1/3rd done with the outsidr hull planking! Thanks all! Jeff

@Ronald-V Thank you very much for the compliment! You're right about it being harder to have one layer of planking instead of 2. But I have to admit, I do like to do it this way a little better because I only have to plank the hull once haha! I wanted to give an update. I finally finished the 1st belt on the port side. As I was almost done, I realized the planks attached to the bow were not beveled enough edge wise. It's not by much, but I noticed it. I also completed a light sanding too so I will have to come back later and finish the sanding. Thanks all for following and for the likes! Next up is completing the 1st belt on the starboard side. Thanks all! Jeff

Hey all, I've been able to get more planking done. I am almost done with the first belt on the port side. I believe it's looking pretty good so far. This is how I place the plank on the bow. First, after I use the jig to pre-edge bend the planks, I test fit it on the bow. I have noticed with the basswood strips, I don't really need to pre bend the planks in any another direction other than on the edge. When I test fit the plano, I do bottome edge bevel so that it sits as flush as I can get it to the previous plank. After test fitting, I darken one side edge and the end of the plank where it will butt against the next plank. I make sure to not have both edges darkened. There are 2 reasons for that. I don't want to make the edges too dark, and if there is a small gap between it and the previous plank after gluing, if you fill the small hole, it will look odd having the filler used surrounded by the black pencile lines. If you only darken one edge, the filling looks like it's attached to the plank that does not have the darkened edge. It looks a lot better. I hope that makes sense. When ready to glue, I first only glue the very tip of the plank. I don't glue the plank to the thicker bulkhead yet. After the glue dries (I use thin CA glue), I then glue the plank to the first bulkhead former. I then added some glue to the next bulkhead but a super small amount to the previous plank edge (only add glue to the space between bulkheads. This helps me make sure that I can get the planks to stick to the previously place plank below it. I then continue in this fashion, only gluing the plank to 1 bulkhead former at a time until it's all glued on. The pic above shows I have a problem. I wasn't able to glue the plank totally against the previous plank. That was my fault. To fix it, I mixed wood glue, some basswood shavings I sanded off the basswood strip I was using, and a few drops of water to make my own wood filler. Here is the wood shavings next to the glue. I mixed in a few drops of water to the wood and added a very little amount of the wood glue. I then filled the small gap between the 2 planks. After it dried, I lightly sand it with 220 grit sandpaper to even it out. I continue in this fading to the stern. For the stern, I overlap the stern plank with the plank next to it to give me room when I'm adjustmenting the stern edge of the plank. I then marked the stern edge as well. I then bent the plank to shape, especially at the stern edge as that has the most curve to it. I then use a sharp hobby knife to cut along the diagonal line I marked. I then test fit and modify the stern most edge of the plank to fit nicely against the lower counter. Once satisfied, it cut and used my disk sander to slowly shorten the plank so it butts against the previous plank with a nice fit. Once i am satisfied with the fit, I bevel the bottom edge to sit better against the plank under it, and darken one edge. Like the bow plank, I glued it onto one bulkhead at all time until it's fully glued onto the hull. This pic (above) shows how much CA glue I use when gluing to the lower counter. It's not much honestly. I then contiue the plank per bulkhead So here are some pics as to how far along I am on planking so far. Thank you for following along with me! Jeff

Hey all! Thank you for the likes! Just a quick update. My entire family has been sick and we had to deal with a leak in our shower that was coming down upon our kitchen ceiling. Yuck. So not too much time for modeling unfortunately. But I have a small update today. I have started planking the hull below the wales. Before I started, I read the instructions quite a few times. It's a lot to take in at once. @Chuck recommended in his instructions to read the book "Planking the Build-Up Ship Model" by Jim Roberts. I ordered this book from Model Shipways and it didn't take too long to arrive. This book, like what Chuck said, is highly detailed and is a great resource for planking. I read through a few chapters and noticed that some pics in this book, are also in the instructions of the USF Confederacy! Chuck's instructions does a good job summarizing what is in this book. Which is a lot of information. I did create the jig written in the instructions with the supplied laser cut curved batten. Here is a pic of it after i bent 3 wood strips. (Though I have already used 2 of then hah!) It's definitely helpful for edge bending 3 strips at a time. I was able to finish 1 row and started the next. Here are some pics of my progress. As you can see, it's just the beginning of the process. I will start to make steady progress soon. Once I complete 10 rows, I will then start the other side's planking. Thanks all! Jeff

Hey all! Finally finished tree nailing the hull! That sure took a while to do. It took a total of 6327 tree nails. Whew! I completed this step by re-staining and varnishing the hull. Now, this is the first time I've tried to both tree nail and varnish a hull. I can see spots where I can clean it up and bit; but I learned quite a lot doing this. Doing 3 inches at a time was key to not get overloaded with this step. Here are the pics of the hull as she stands now. You might have to zoom in to really see the tree nails. I won't be tree nailing below the wales. I might take a day or two off before starting to plank the hull. Thanks all! Jeff

Congratulations! You have done an excellent job! I think it looks cool that you stopped at the main mast cap. It gives a unique look since not many modelers stop there. Here is looking forward to your next build! Cheers! Jeff

Thanks Bug! Like the instructions say, focusing on 3" segments really helps me get through this process. I hope she will look better with these tree nails! I also can see why this is one of your favorite kits. It has been very fun so far and the instructions are excellent. Ill check out your joint build log! Also, if you decide to make a build log of her later this year, I would be interested in following along! Jeff

Hey all! I know it's been quite a while between my last post, but I've been super busy with my Confederacy build and currently in the middle of tree nailing her. But I finally was able to give my Cheerful the quality time she deserves. First, I have to admit, I measured twice and cut once with making my strips, but I guess my eyes were tricking me! I thought i was milling 3/32" strips, but instead, I was making slightly thinner than 1/16". This was too thin. I had to create a new jig to measure out 3/32" and mill more strips at the correct width. It always hurts knowing I milled the wrong sized strips. I then had to remove all the strips I had glued on her. Believe me, that wasnt a.... Cheerful activity. Yes. Bad dad joke. To remove the strips, I used Bob's CA unglue and that worked remarkably well. Though I had to still be very careful removing the whale strips. This was disheartening, but it's best to fix things now than being in a much worse place later. I have since glued on both rows of the first layer of the wales. I then glued on the molding strip right below most gunports. This molding strip needs to be 1/64" below each gunport except for the first port. The best way to figure out where to place the molding at the bow is studying the plans. To make the 1/64" between the gunport and strip, I created a small jig to measure out that width. I would hook this over the gunport and push the molding strip up against it. At least this way, it will help to keep a more even and consistent width between the molding strip and the gunports. Soon, I will continue planking the gap between the molding strip and the wales. Thanks all! Jeff

Hey all! I know it's been a while. I got sick a few times since December. I swear I caught everything that was going around. Anyway, it's taken a long time to tree nail! I'm almost done with the starboard side of her. I am counting every tree nail I make, so if you guys want to guess how many tree nails it took me for the starboard side, be my guest! I'll leave a few pics as to my progress. As you can see, I only have a small portion at the stern to finish. I know it looks like a mess right now. But I'll clean it up and stain/varnish this side before moving to the other side. I will have to touch up the black painted whales a little bit too. Anyway, this is a short update and I'll continue tree nailing! Thanks for following along! Jeff

Nicely done! It's coming along very well! Jeff

Hey all! So I have decided to tree nail the hull from the wales upward. But only the hull section that's not painted black. This is a pretty slow process and I'm trying to refine how im doing it. Like the instructions say, I first started on the side with the exposed hull section. I tried to line up the tree nails with the bulkheads as best I could. Here are some pics of my process. I first drill the holes. I place a piece of tape down to match where the ribs are, then I place a square next to the tape to try and make sure it's straight. I manually drill one column at a time until I have completed 3" of tree nails. It's hard to see the drill holes unless I have lower light. I then lightly sand the holes with 400 grit sandpaper just to clean up the tops from loose wood. I don't have enough an awl, so instead, I took a T pin to each of the drilled holes lightly touching just to make sure the holes are round. Afterwards, it looks like this. Then comes the messy part. I fill in each hole with natural wood filler (the kind recommended in the instructions) I then sanded it down to remove the excess. I hope you can see some of it. I have to sand more of the excess off. Sometimes it's really hard to tell if I sanded enough, so I have to take a very lightly damp cloth and rub the hull for the tree nails to appear. I had to do that with the pic above, but i can tell it needs more sanding. I do think it will look really nice once it's done. This will be a very labor intensive timely process. I will try to give update as to how its going in a few days. Wish me luck! Jeff

Happy 2025 everyone! I finally felt better enough this week to make some progress. I have completed the other side wales and decided to put the molding on like the other side. I already described how I complete the wales and molding in previous posts, so I'll just post some pics of both sides finished. Oh, I have to note. I 3D printed a new holder for the ship while she is upside-down. I made the design in Blender after measuring the ship and where I wanted the supports to go. I made 4 support points. Each connection joint is a different size so that the holder only fits in 1 way. It took quite a while to print as each piece must be able to be printed within the size limitations of my 3D printer. Whew! Finally those steps are completed! I would like to start tree nailing, but I'll wait until tomorrow to start. Thanks! Jeff

@Wawona59 Hi John! Thank you for following my build log! I apologize for not replying sooner. I caught pretty much everything since before Christmas and I'm finally starting to feel better. Like you, I had my Confederacy kit sitting away for years before I felt mostly comfortable to start her. It was fun just looking at the box with anticipation. Haha! Thanks for following and I hope you and everyone have a great 2025! Jeff

@wernerweiss Thank you for your thoughts. I do appreciate the critiques, especially from someone who has finished The Confederacy! By the way, you have a great build log of her and you did a fantastic job. Your Confederacy is excellent. Jeff